by Ian Williams
“Because Anthony is the reason one of my brothers was locked up here and why one was murdered. I’ve lost too much because of him already. I blame him for everything. But I had no idea what his real plan was, I promise you. Grabbing Elliot was a mistake, I see that now. And I want to put things right any way I can.”
Either way, they had to escape together. Graham knew he had little choice in the matter in reality, regardless of the fact that her reason for helping sounded a lot like revenge to him. Something they each shared. If she had a score to settle with those responsible then he was OK with that. “Fine, let’s go. I need to do something first.”
“No time, Mister, we should go now,” Sean said, tentatively stepping over Freddy’s body.
“I didn’t come here to get you. I came for something else, something we have to do to stop your leader. Just remember I’ve got the gun.” Graham flashed the pistol at the two of them.
“What were you here for then, if not us?” Phoenix asked.
He saw no point in lying to her or withholding what he knew. If either of them did anything he would use the gun. Except just the thought brought forward images of Freddy and then Dino’s corpses. He felt himself gag again. “There’s someone here with me. I need to get him. He’s in the server room. Problem is I can’t get back in there.”
After Phoenix had picked up a Taser weapon they left the room and the horrific scene of violence inside it, and raced into the hallway. The moment they turned the corner an alarm began to ring out that sounded more like a fire alarm than a security one. Their intrusion was now known to everyone within the building. Time was quickly going against them.
Graham led them to the security door and demonstrated his lack of access by depressing the handle to no avail. “See, we’re locked out.”
“Shoot through the glass,” Phoenix said.
It was such an obvious solution that Graham found his head hurt from the sudden realisation that he had missed it. The alarm was already sounding out, so more noise was hardly going to give them away, any more than they already had been anyway. He quickly raised the pistol and fired with his face turned away from the spray of debris. The window shattered, then fell away in a sparkling and glittery explosion that sent tiny glass pieces bouncing across the floor.
He stepped through the window and then stopped before continuing on. “Stay here and keep the security guards out. I’ll only be a second.”
“Hurry up then. If any of them starts shooting at us then I’m leaving. I won’t risk losing Sean in here,” Phoenix responded coldly.
The deal made sense to Graham, he could hardly expect her to remain while under fire. He resolved himself to the possibility of having to break out of the building without them. For now he just had to concentrate on retrieving Luke before anyone showed up. A few rows later and he spotted the small device containing Luke still flashing away on the side of the computer stack.
He could not remove it without checking his burglary accomplice was back inside it though. Except he had no idea know how to do this. “Luke, you there. Hey, buddy, we need to go right now,” he said while looking around him as if searching for a mouse on the floor. There was no answer, Luke was evidently still much too busy to respond.
“We need to go. Come on, for fuck’s sake,” Phoenix called out to him. “We’ve got company!”
While Graham continued to ask the nearby computer stacks for Luke to reply, a gunshot echoed down the corridor. The Taser bolt ricochet of another of the glass panels, which responded with a dull thump and a wobble. It was now time to go. “Luke, we have to go. We’re under attack out here.”
A shape shimmered out of nothing at his side, sending him leaping away in fright. Luke reappeared with a look of surprise on his holographic and perfectly chiselled face. “Attack? From who?” he said.
“There’s no time for that right now. We’ve got to leave. Have you finished doing what you need to?”
“I’ve done enough, yes. There’s a lot in here that we could use to our advantage.”
“Yeah, that’s great. If we weren’t being shot at then I’d agree we should stay. Unfortunately, as it stands we are, so we can’t. Can I remove the projector?”
Luke nodded. He then produced an assault rifle from the ether and held it up against his chest. “Let’s go,” he said as he walked away.
The sight of such a huge weapon made Graham blink repeatedly. He struggled to grasp where it had come from, let alone why Luke had not shown it earlier. “Where the hell did you get that from?” he asked.
“It isn’t real Graham, just a hologram. But no-one else knows. It should scare them enough to back off.”
Luke led the way back to the entrance of the server room. Following directly behind, Graham was overjoyed to see their plan was going right for a change. When they joined Phoenix and her brother Sean, he could almost inhale their combined surprise at seeing Luke appear like a one man army about to go to war. He did not stop though, they still had to get out alive.
Stepping out into the corridor, Luke lowered his monstrosity of a weapon to a choir of shouts and calls from those in his sights. They had no idea that what was about to be unleashed from this holographic representation of an assault rifle, was in fact nothing more than light. He let loose, sending an ear-bursting howl of noise and fake bullets careening down the hallway. “Go, now!” he ordered like a colonel about to sacrifice himself for the lives of his men.
“What about you?” Graham called back.
“Go, I’m not really here, I’m inside the device on your arm. I’ll vanish when they get here.” Luke turned back to the hallway ahead of him and laughed out loud. “Don’t be shy!” he yelled to those now hiding in the doorways at the far end of the hall. His act of immense intimidation was working well. None of the armed security guards were even attempting to fire back. They would soon realise that something was wrong. Once Luke eventually vanished they would see absolutely no damage at all to the surrounding area.
“Follow me out,” Graham said to Phoenix and Sean. He darted from cover and ran for the rear entrance he and Luke had used to get in. From there it would be a clear line to the cover of nearby buildings.
He burst through the door, then turned back to wait for Phoenix and Sean to exit closely behind him. With a quick look back to Luke, still to empty his holographic cartridge of bullets, he let the door slam shut. The noise inside suddenly stopped and his surroundings became silent. All he could hear from inside was the combined calls from the security force. Whereas outside there was nothing but the sound of the night-time breeze flowing past tree leafs, and the occasional whizzing noise from a Mag-Lev car speeding by.
When he spun around to race off with his fellow escapees, he was met by Luke’s calm and unfazed face smiling back at him. He stood waiting as if nothing had happened at all.
“Who are they?” Luke asked.
“How did he –” Sean then began to say.
“I’ll explain it later. To both of you,” Graham said, interrupting the obvious questions. “Let’s get away from here quickly.”
Once passed the Mag-Lev line, freedom was only a few streets away. They had made it out and were now well on their way to hitting back at the terrorists.
It did not bode well that they had gotten out without the Simova network even attempting to track them. With the country’s infrastructure facing a barrage from all sides, its security detection systems had taken a huge hit and were ignoring most transgressions. This was only one of the many problems to come, Graham knew from Luke’s history lesson.
Even though they had already created enough space between themselves and the Simova building, none were willing to stop and rest. Instead they all continued to run, first up one street and then down another. Picking a random route was all down to Phoenix and her brother Sean, who had possibly faced similar situations before. It was natural to them.
Almost ten minutes of running later and Graham could run no more – he nearly lost them twice a
lready. He rested against a street bench before falling into it. “I can’t,” he said with a shake of his head. The air was going in his chest faster than it could come back out; he was exhausted. They would have to stop for a few moments, just so he could catch a breath and slow his pulse.
“This would be a good time to call back to Sanctuary,” Luke said. He cast a curious gaze over to Phoenix and Sean, who were checking each other over for injuries.
“I don’t think … this will be … a safe place for long,” Graham struggled to say between breaths. “We only need to be spotted … by one camera and … its game over.”
“I can help with that.” Phoenix unzipped her bag and delved in. She then produced a small yellow box that had Graham and Luke highly interested. “It’s a scrambler device, should knock out the cameras here,” she said in response to the looks of confusion.
Graham allowed himself a few seconds of calmness and cleared his mind. Although doing this still could not block flashes of recent violence from replaying in his head. Accidentally killing Freddy would haunt him for a while to come, he knew.
While the others took the time to rest as well, Luke remained standing. He held his arms out in front of him and swung them apart, revealing a floating video display that he then began to interact with. Seconds later and the display had already started to initiate a video call. It blinked for a few moments until Stephen’s face suddenly appeared. “We’ve made it out without incident, Stephen. Can you begin–”
Stephen apparently had something else on his mind as he began to speak over Luke’s voice. “I wanted some more Peanut butter. Can you bring some back with you?” he said.
“Not right now, Stephen. Do you remember the plan we discussed? Well we’re in the middle of that at the moment. I need you to start the Recall process for me, can you do that?”
“OK,” Stephen replied, looking disappointed to be missing out on another of his favourite snacks. “Can we get some afterwards?”
“We’ll talk about your addiction to sugary things when we get back,” Luke said sternly. “For now you have to activate Sanctuary’s systems for me.”
“Fine.” Stephen looked down and began to click at the keys on his keyboard – he apparently preferred the old way of interacting with computers. As he worked away he whistled a tune and bobbed his head, with the occasional peek back at the screens above him.
“Is my family there yet?” Graham asked. In the background he could hear someone moving about, followed by their footsteps as they approached the video display. Alex then came into view by Stephen’s side, her fuzzy hair as out of control as ever. Her heart-warming and beaming smile immediately eased a good portion of Graham’s pain. “Hey honey, how are you?” he said.
“I’m OK, Daddy. Mummy and Uncle Elliot are here as well. Auntie Ruth came and got us. Why aren’t you here too, Daddy?”
“I’ve been busy. I promise I’ll be with you soon.”
“Can they stay for dinner?” Stephen interrupted. He stopped working again – to Luke’s dismay.
“Sure,” Graham replied.
“Stephen, back to work please.” Luke angled his video display away from Graham for a second to show Stephen he meant it this time. When he appeared satisfied that his message had been received, he twisted it back around. Alex now watched with wonder as Stephen clicked away at the keys and swiped at hovering images in front of him. “We’ll return soon.”
“Hang on,” Graham said just before the call was to be ended. “I’ve done my part, now you need to do yours.”
“You wish me to deactivate the device attached to your friend?” Luke asked. When Graham nodded in reply, Luke closed his eyes and stood silently for a few seconds. He then opened his eyes and spoke. “It is done.”
“Great, now we can go.” Graham pushed himself up from the bench and steadied his footing before setting off again.
While Luke set about removing his display screen from existence with a wide swing of his arm, the others followed Graham. It was a long walk back to the farming tower tunnel and then on to Sanctuary. They would only be allowed a few short hops on and off the Mag-Lev line along the way, anymore and they risked being picked up by one of the few working Simova camera spies.
The MARCs were already playing havoc with the city’s relay network, which meant they were no longer working like they should have been. Despite this he was still worried. If he had not just broken into the Simova depot he would not have been too concerned. Except people would surely be looking for them now. One tiny glimpse of them and the chance of retreating to safety would be lost instantly. They would have to tread carefully.
“I know we’re new and all, but what the hell was that all about?” Phoenix asked as she pulled alongside Graham.
With a look back to Luke before answering, he thought it over. After no objection was given by his holographic companion he replied. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you on the way.”
He would start by telling them that Luke was actually a hologram. That seemed the most obvious place to start. The rest, however, would be much more complicated. Luckily they had time to spare. If they were equally as eager to share stories as well, then he was expecting to learn a lot in a short amount of time. For starters, who the fuck Anthony actually was?
Chapter 17
Repercussions
Kristof stared up in a daze to the starry sky above him. Something seemed odd about it. Every now and then it was broken by a dark line that arched across and attached to another, similar line. It felt peaceful to be amid such a wondrous sight, even though a couple of the larger stars had an odd haze surrounding them that created a tunnel like path toward them.
Then a new, much brighter star suddenly exploded into his vision and began to wave from left to right, like it swung from a rope high above him. It was then that he realised he was lying flat on his back and staring straight up through the glass roof of the shopping centre. While the large stars had become ceiling lights, the light moving back and forth across his vision soon turned into a small torch. Someone was checking him for signs of consciousness. When he blinked, the torch moved away.
“He’s coming back around,” a woman said beside him. “Hello? Can you hear me?” she asked before gently slapping his cheek.
The impact was like a thunderous roar inside his head, although it had effectively jolted him awake. He could now see the rest of his surroundings. The lights above were shining a steady level of illumination that made his eyes ache. But much nearer to him were faces he did not recognise at all. They each had a visible degree of fear written across them. Except for the woman who he realised was holding his head in her lap to support him.
“What happened?” Kristof asked, looking up into the woman’s tired and reddened eyes.
“You were caught in an explosion. One of the other officers had a medical kit in his equipment pouch. We gave you something for the pain and patched you up as well as we could,” she replied.
“Are they all dead?”
The woman fell silent.
“Enough of the chit-chat. Sit him up, now.” The face accompanying these words was much harsher than any other around. “I have some questions,” the man said a few feet away. He stood slightly too far away for Kristof’s worn out eyes to see clearly.
“He’s only just regained consciousness, let him have a minute,” the woman barked back.
“Sit him up, or I’ll drag him out here and shoot him.”
Kristof was gently levered up, only to feel something snap out of place as his vertebrae fought back. He grimaced at the intense sensation of discomfort that followed. For a second he felt certain he had broken something. Then, the moment he was up, it settled down again. When the pain had almost entirely subsided, he breathed out. Except it did not go completely, it had just moved to somewhere else.
His right hand had no feeling in it at all. A quick look down at it confirmed what he hoped had been a nightmare; only one finger remained, sticking out from a lar
ge wrapping of bloodied bandages. He kept surprisingly calm at the sight of his injury, more so than he thought would be normal. The woman had evidently pumped him so full of painkillers that it hardly registered anymore. Only sudden pains got through the fog in his head. Which made thinking much harder than it ordinarily was for him.
“Why did they send you in here?” the man in charge said. “Hey, can you hear me?”
In his confused state Kristof failed to realise the man had spoken to him. Not until someone nearby kicked his thigh did he realise he was expected to answer. “I’m Rajco. Kristof.”
“Really? Oh, dear. Did you seriously think you could just walk in here and take me? Answer me!” the man shouted.
No words came to mind. Kristof had nothing to offer in return at all.
“Oh well, there’s no point in dwelling on that is there? I’m Anthony,” he said as he extended his left hand out to greet Kristof. He quickly swapped hands when he spotted the almost fingerless stump he reached for. “Oops, that won’t work at all, will it?” He then shook hands. “Now, unfortunately there are always consequences for such actions, and they are severe in this case. Bring him.”
Kristof was terrified to see one of the surviving police officers being dragged out to the front of the gathering of hostages he sat among. While the man knelt, dazed and nearly as out of it as Kristof, Anthony walked to a table behind him. When he turned around it was the large knife in his hand that had the crowd murmuring to each other. Anthony then swung the weapon around and forced it into the officer’s throat, without even considering the gravity of his actions.
The officer fell away without much of a reaction at all, only a gurgle and a grunt. He probably had no idea what was going on as his own blood flowed down his front. Kristof and his fellow prisoners were forced to witness the barbarity. It was a clear warning to them all. And it had served its purpose well. Kristof instantly realised he had entirely underestimated the people controlling the shopping centre. His arrogance had not only led to a whole team of officers being either killed or captured, it had also landed himself in there with them.
